Designs on Food

You may not have heard of Alan Yau, but chances are you are aware of his modern, edgy style of restaurant. The modest Hong Kong-born, London-based restaurateur has not only wowed the city’s dinners and its food press, but also  the wider British establishment, becoming an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2006 New Year Honours List for “services to the restaurant industry”.

“I was flabbergasted to receive this (award) — to be joining the likes of Gordon Ramsey,” Yau said recently while in Hong Kong to address a “Business of Design” event. It’s a subject he knows well. His breakthrough Chinese and Asian restaurants  have made dining out in London a more contemporary experience, not only through the cuisine served but also their ambience.

First came Wagamama in 1992. This slick central London chain of Zen-like Japanese canteens specialized in affordable noodle dishes, shunning the presence and expense that had previously been associated with this then relatively new cuisine in the UK.

Next up, in 1999, was Busaba Eathai serving reasonably priced Thai cuisine in a renovated bank building that has something of the minimalist interior of Wagamama.

Then came what remains the jewel in Yau’s crown: Hakkasan, a rather exclusive Cantonese restaurant, launched in 2001 in a then unassuming road  off London’s Oxford Street. The compliments came thick and fast: Hakkasan received Best Restaurant Honours at the 2001 FX International Design Awards and The Most Outstanding Environment Design & Architecture accolade in 2002.

Yauatcha followed in 2004, combining a traditional Chinese-style teahouse on its upper level with a French patisserie on the ground floor — all within a space age, almost nightclub-like interior. December 2005 saw Yau launch food operations at the incomparably grand Turandot in Moscow — which is owned by Russian restaurateur to high rollers, Andrei Dellos, and is based on a baroque palace.

So, with all these projects in mind, what was the subject of the lecture Yau delivered at the Hong Kong event? “Emotional architecture — as a restaurateur,” he declared.

“The importance of ‘emotional’ architecture — the restaurant’s design — has grown in the past ten years,” he went on to explain. “This is an important part of what people experience when they go out to eat. It brings social dynamics into a room. In relation to what I do, this is very important. It is the energy within a space.

“I don’t try to make any extra effort for design. For me it is quite an easy area, it comes naturally. A lot of people see design in relation to furnishing finishes or other material definitions. I think of it in pre-requisite terms to that. How I design a space involves two aspects. Firstly, what makes a restaurant work within a design [concept], and secondly, how to order a space in relation to social dynamics.

“Dinners don’t see [or notice] this. It’s a bit like ‘how do you make a house a home?’ You can pull energy together or you can push it away, for example, by the way you place seating and the tables. Wagamama has core components [that reflect this]. The depth of each bench [table] is exactly 700 millimeters. This is the optimum size for its functional aspect of holding food and allowing people to enjoy conversation.”

Naturally enough, food is also a key component in Yau’s restaurant empire. Again, it’s not all about the hip factor, and culinary concepts, like design ones, are kept flexible. Yauatcha for instance was intended to have a Chinese pastry section, in keeping with the notion of a Chinese teahouse. However, a proficient Chinese pastry chef could not be found in London, so Yau went for the French option.

In the world of food criticism, his cuisine has been recognized on its own merit. Among the clutch of the restaurant’s other tributes, Hakkasan received a Michelin star in 2003, becoming one of the first Cantonese restaurants to do so.

Yau’s restaurant concepts have gone beyond reflecting his Chinese heritage and take in both casual and fine dining. “I see myself as being one of the few operators who can transcend market sentiment,” he said. “Being a restaurateur is not like the old days where an owner would stick to one ethnicity. I see an analogy with film directors, I don’t feel I have to be typecast into one genre.”

Yau is happy to have lifted the profile of Cantonese cuisine abroad, though, he admitted. “The rest of the world saw it in a very limited form. With Hakkasan and Yauatcha, I wanted to introduce a quintessentially Cantonese menu, but push  the agenda to a level where the sense of the cooking is bang up-to-date. I also wanted to avoid what a lot of Singaporean operators have done — they go for a Cantonese fusion,” he added.

In order to keep abreast of development on the contemporary Cantonese dining scene, Yau visits Hong Kong at least once a month. “I also taste for potential chefs,” he admitted, adding that there was some truth in the long-standing rumors that he was planning to open a Hakkasan in Hong Kong: “Hong Kong dinners would be a real challenge for me. They would want to know what I could bring to Cantonese dining here that they do not already have. I think there is a niche in Hong Kong that is yet to be filled.

“I would not necessarily offer the same menu as in London. One hundred percent localization of ingredients would be a real plus. In London, it’s 70 percent and within that, the quality is not  as high.”

The future for Yau’s restaurant business looks bright. New outlets are scheduled to open soon in New York, Istanbul and Abu Dhabi, and London’s ever-popular Hakkasan is set to expand. All this leaves little time for the globe-trotting entrepreneur; his frequent trips to Hong Kong mean that meeting up with family and friends is possible. Other than that, Yau said he enjoys visiting hotel spas to unwind.

“I find them inspiring from a design point of view,” he added. “I like the Oriental Spa in Bangkok and the one at the Park Hyatt Tokyo. Many in Hong Kong seem a little bit clinical. I like the design at The Plateau at the Grand Hyatt, but then I’m a big fan of its architect (Hong Kong-based John Moford).”

Source: Discover – In-flight Magazine of Cathay Pacific, April 2007 issue